Together with IDESI Ayacucho (Instituto de Desarollo del Sector Informal), Los Gorriones has developed a sustainable farm project near Ayacucho combining guinea pigs (a popular meat in Peru) and tara trees (for industrial use abroad).

Ten selected families would receive financial, technical and organisational help in setting up and managing the farm, and selling the produce. In time, the project would become sustainable and be extended to include more families. The farmers would be asked to pay in money in kind for their training so that they take responsibility for the project.

The ultimate goal of this development project is to provide a stable income to the families involved and thus prevent child abuse and abandonment. Indeed, 80% of the Ayacucho families have no income covering their basic needs, including food, and survive in the informal sector. This poverty has lead to widespread alcohol and drug abuse and abusive family situations. In this situation, children have even less control over their destiny than their parents. Many are made to work to make ends meet, are neglected or beaten by drunken or drugged parents, or risk being abandoned on the street where even greater misery awaits them, including crime and prostitution. 

In addition, raising guinea pigs is relatively easy: the animals do not need much space and the daily care is limited to one hour and a half. The farmers therefore have time to develop a parallel activity: the cultivation of tara.

The tara tree grows on altitudes ranging from 1.000 to 2.900 metres. Its fruit can be powdered to produce a natural tannin for leather tanning. It can also serve as a raw material for the production of gallic acid, a high-value commodity used in the leather, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.

In Peru, tara is a profitable export product, even more so as the world trade in tara is rapidly growing. The exports of five of the biggest Peruvian export companies include tara. Through these companies, IDESI Ayacucho could open the door to sales potential abroad.

Cultivating tara is not difficult. Owing to its low demands in water and soil quality, it is excellent for arid lands such as the highlands around Ayacucho. Not much work is involved and a minimum knowledge of the harvesting and selling is sufficient. Though the first harvest of a tara plantation must wait for one a half years, its volume steadily increases afterwards. After ten years, the harvest will have doubled.

- Creating permanent jobs for ten families that will significantly increase their standard of living. This would be especially important to

   one-parent families in which the mother is the only remaining breadwinner after the departure of the father. There are many of these

   in Ayacucho and they live in even greater poverty

- Ensure economic independence for the beneficiary families and develop their expertise

- Reach a minimum production of 123 guinea pigs per family

- Cultivate as much tara as possible, using all available land

- Extend the project to new families every three years without new investments